Location-based call initiation

ABSTRACT

An apparatus has a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to schedule a communication between a contact center and a communication device associated with a user, prompt the user to configure a geographic location for the communication device, track geographic location for the communication device, and initiate the communication in response to determining that the geographic location of the communication device appliance is the configured geographic location.

FIELD

The disclosure generally relates to the technical area of contactcenters and pertains more particularly to managing callback to customersbased at least in part on location of the customer's communicationappliance.

BACKGROUND

The art of contact centers is well known, and call management, includingcallback management is generally part of contact center operations.Generally, a customer provides particular time and channel preferencesfor callback, but improvements are always desirable. As customersatisfaction is one of the main concerns in contact center operations,it is desirable to provide additional benefits in call initiation andmanagement.

SUMMARY

In some implementations an apparatus is provided comprising a processorand a memory, the memory storing instructions that when executed by theprocessor, may cause the processor to schedule a communication between acontact center and a user's specific communication device, enable theuser to configure a geographic location for the specific communicationdevice, track geographic location for the specific communication device,and initiate the communication upon the geographic location of thecommunication device appliance being determined by the contact center tobe the configured geographic location. In some implementations theinstructions may further cause the processor to enable the user tofurther configure one or more of date, time, and communication channelfor the scheduled communication in addition to geographic location forthe specific communication device.

In some implementations of the apparatus the instructions may furthercause the processor to present an interactive window enabling the userto indicate a point or region on a map to be used as the geographiclocation to trigger the communication, and the point or region indicatedby the user in the interactive window may be converted into longitudeand latitude coordinates and stored as the geographic location totrigger the communication. In some implementations the instructions mayfurther cause the processor to utilize a third party service todetermine the coordinates.

In some implementations of the apparatus the instructions may furthercause the processor to maintain a database relating locations by addressand description to coordinates, enable the user to describe a location,parse the location described by the user for keywords and phrases, andpresent to the user candidate locations matching the description. Instill other implementations the instructions may further cause theprocessor to track location of the specific communication device byGlobal Positioning System (GPS).

In some implementations the instructions may further cause the processorto cooperate with a third-party service to track location of thespecific communication device. The third-party service may be a cellularservice provider. In some implementations the instructions may furthercause the processor to impose a time delay before initiating thecommunication upon the geographic location of the communication deviceappliance being determined to be the configured geographic location.

In another aspect a method is provided, comprising the acts schedulingby a computing device having a processor, a communication from a contactcenter to a user's specific communication device, presenting to the useran interactive window by the computing device, enabling the user toconfigure a geographic location associated uniquely with the specificcommunication device, periodically tracking by the computing device thegeographic location for the communication device, and upon thegeographic location of the communication device being determined to bethe configured geographic location, initiating the communication.

In some implementations further acts enable the user to configure one ormore of date, time, and communication channel in addition to geographiclocation to initiate the scheduled communication. In some otherimplementations an act may present to the user an interactive windowenabling the user to indicate a point or region on a map to be used bythe communication system as the geographic location to be used fortriggering the communication. In yet another implementation an act mayconvert the point or region indicated by the user in the interactivewindow into longitude and latitude coordinates and storing thecoordinates as the geographic location. The coordinates may be providedto the contact center by a third-party service.

In some implementations acts may be provided maintaining a databaserelating locations by address and description to coordinates, presentingto user a first interactive window for describing a location, parsingthe user's description for keywords and phrases, and presentingcandidate locations in a second window. Tracking location of thecomputerized appliance may be by Global Positioning System (GPS), whichmay be accomplished by a third-party system, and the coordinates may beprovided to the computing device.

In some implementations of the method acts may be provided tracking thelocation of the computerized appliance by a wireless enterprise, andproviding coordinates from the tracking to the contact center. A timedelay may be imposed prior to the communication being initiated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an architectural diagram depicting a contact center andnetwork connections in an implementation of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an interactive window offered to acustomer in an implementation of the present invention to configurecallback parameters.

FIG. 3 is an example of an interactive window that may be offered to thecustomer to configure geo-location parameters.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an interactive window aiding a user inconfiguring geo-location for callback.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating operation in one implementation ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is an exemplary architectural diagram of a network-connectedsystem that includes a contact center 111 in an implementation of thepresent invention. It is to be noted that this architecture is merelyexemplary, and there are many alterations that might be made, in whichthe architecture would still be suitable for implementations of thisinvention. It is also to be noted that there may be several more contactcenters sharing outbound and inbound traffic and distributing answeredoutbound calls to agents.

This exemplary system comprises a wide-area-network (WAN) 102, apublic-switched telephone network (PSTN) 101, and a wireless carriernetwork (WN) 103. PSTN 101 may be any publicly switched telephonenetwork or combination thereof. WAN 102 may be a corporate or publicWAN, and may be the well-known Internet network. Wireless network 103may be any wireless carrier network and is typically a cellulartelephony network.

WAN 102 is the Internet network in one implementation because of itshigh public access characteristic, and is referred to herein as Internet102. Internet 102 is further exemplified by a network backbone 104representing all of the lines, equipment, and connection points thatmake up the Internet as a whole. Therefore, there are no geographiclimitations to practice of the present invention.

Network backbone 104 in this example supports a web server 109, whichmay be hosted by any one of a wide variety of enterprises ororganizations, and represents all web servers that may be instantiatedin the Internet.

Contact center 111 is illustrated in this example as built upon a localarea network (LAN) 118 supporting various equipment and facilities forpracticing contact-center interaction processing. LAN 118 supports aplurality of work stations 116 (1-n) useful for contact center agents,the workstations dedicated to services for the host of the contactcenter. Each contact center agent in this example operates from one ofagent stations 116 (1-n). Each agent station 116 (1-n) includes aLAN-connected computing appliance and a switch-connected telephone forillustrative purposes only, as the specific equipment types andoperation may vary. The telephone capability at agent stations may beprovided through the LAN as digital telephony, as shown in this example,or some telephones may be connected by Destination Number lines (notshown) to a landline switch 133, which in turn is connected to landlinenetwork 101 by trunk 117.

Landline network 101 includes a network-level telephone switch 105,representing a plurality of such switches in the network. Switch 105 maybe an automated call distributor (ACD) or a private branch exchange(PBX), or some other type of telephony switching facility withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Telephoneswitch 105 is connected to central office telephone switch 133 incontact center 111 via telephony trunk 117. Switch 133 represents thelast hop for landline callers before being routed to agent stations 116(1-n). Gateway 108 is adapted by software executing from a physicalmedium to facilitate cross conversion of telephony traffic from thelandline network to the Internet network and from the Internet over thelandline network.

Landline telephones 131 (1-n) connect to landline switch 105 via lines130. Calls from agents may be made to landline telephones via thisconnectivity and calls from the landline telephones, may be connected toagents as well.

Digitally-enabled telephones 132 (1-n) connect to Internet backbone 104,and calls may be made to such telephone devices from agents at contactcenter 111, and incoming calls or answered calls in an outbound campaignmay be routed to agents in contact center 111.

Consumer mobile appliances 115 (1), 115 (2) and 115 (3) are wirelesslyenabled to connect to network backbone 104 via a cell tower 112, atransceiver 113, and a wireless multimedia gateway (WGW) 114 bridgingcommunications between wireless network 103 and Internet 102, Consumerappliance 115 (1) may be a Laptop computer, 115 (2) may be a tabletappliance, and 115 (3) may be a cellular telephone, such as an iPhone oran Android-enabled telephone. Users operating appliances 115 (1-3) mayinitiate and manage telephone calls, multi-media transactions, emails,and web-browsing sessions.

Referring again to contact center 111 in FIG. 1, there are a number ofservers providing a variety functions, such as a Computer TelephonyIntegration (CTI) server 120, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) server119 and a server 121 providing voice applications in support of IVRinteractions with callers. It may be noted that the particulardeployment in the architecture of such servers may vary widely indifferent use cases.

A server 122 with a processor 124 executing software (SW) 123 isconnected to Internet backbone 104, and is enabled to manage InternetProtocol voice and multimedia communication, either initiated by agentsto appliances outside the contact center, or incoming from suchappliances, to be distributed to agents in the contact center. Astatistics server 126 having a connected data storage 127 performsstatistical services for various operations in the contact center,storing information such as agent profiles, customer profiles and thelike, and performing a variety of functions in support of the contactcenter.

A server 125 executing SW 128 in this example is dedicated to overallcontact center management, one function of which is customer callbackoperations. Contact centers are typically dedicated to the purposes of acommercial enterprise, such as a bank or an airline, to provide servicesto customers of the enterprise. One function of contact centers is toserve the interests of customers, which may be done at least in part bydialogue between customers and agents at agent stations 116 (1-n). Forexample, for a contact center operated on behalf of an airline,customers may use contact center services to make and change flightreservations, pay for tickets, inquire about flight status, changeflights and flight times, inquire about baggage restrictions, reserveand pay for premium seating and much more. Customers may interact andtransact with the airline's services through the airline's web site, orby email, chat, instant messaging, or voice telephony, either landlineor Internet protocol, with agents at the contact center, or incombinations of such channels.

In the course of an agent or other facility of a contact centertransacting business with a customer it is frequently the case that thecustomer's interest is not completely satisfied in a singlecommunication session. For example, a customer using a landlinetelephone 131 (FIG. 1) may call contact center 111 to make reservationfor round-trip travel for two people from one airport to another. Thatcustomer may call at a time when all agents are busy and be put on holdfor the next available agent. The contact center management SW 128 has aqueuing system for the purpose, and calls are distributed to agentsbased on any number of intelligent routing schemes. In some cases thewait time may be prohibitive, and the contact center system may informthe customer that she may remain in queue for the next available agent,or the contact center will call the customer back when an agent becomesavailable, or at some time convenient for the customer.

The description above is but one of many reasons that a callback may bedesired in an interaction between a contact center and a customer. Thereare many other reasons. For example a customer may not have been able tomake a seat selection on one of the flights, and the contact center mayoffer to call the customer back when seat selection on that flight isavailable. As another example a customer may wish to be notified whenand if one of the flights is known to be delayed.

Customers may have many preferences for callback. One customer, forexample, may want to be sure he is never called at his dinner-time, from7:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific. Another may want all such calls to come at acertain fifteen-minute window on Monday through Friday, and never onweekends. The same or another customer may prefer that all suchcallbacks come as voice calls to his smart phone, and never to his homeland-line phone, even though he may originate calls to a contact centerfrom his land-line telephone.

Although customers do generally have the option to provide callbackpreferences, such as, for example, preferences for days, times, andchannels for callback, it is desirable to utilize other parameters withrespect to callbacks. According to one exemplary embodiment, a callbackmay be triggered by location. In implementations of the presentinvention a customer might for example, want an update of her flightitinerary precisely fifteen minutes after she first arrives at thepreferred customer (VIP) lounge of the particular airline in theterminal where the first flight is scheduled to depart. The customer mayhave a fairly good idea when she might arrive at the VIP lounge, but dueto many variable circumstances, that arrival time may vary by as much asan hour or more. If the call from the contact center to the customer canbe triggered by her arrival at the VIP lounge, and then delayed byfifteen minutes, she will have time to settle in with a glass of sherryafter her arrival at the VIP lounge, and then, through the triggeredcallback, review the status of her itinerary and her first fight.Further, she may configure that the location-triggered callback be avoice call by a VIP agent, who may have access to recently developinginformation which may be advantageous for the customer.

In any case, a contact center in one implementation of the presentinvention may have a software-supported mechanism for customerpreference. This may be a very simple and straightforward system inwhich an agent, in dialogue with the customer, perhaps following ascript, may offer a callback to the customer for any one of manypurposes at or near the end of a voice conversation. In this example,the agent may manually set a date, time and channel for such anotification. The callback need not be limited to a voice call, but mayinclude other types of communication. For example, a callback may be anemail, an instant message, or even an alert by some channel for thecustomer to call in. The callback might also be made by more than onechannel, such as by voice call and email, for example.

In some implementations the particular contact center may have asoftware-supported mechanism for the customer, who may be a regular andknown customer of the enterprise, to configure callback options. Acustomer might have many preferences for a callback, such as a timewindow when that customer prefers to take a call from this particularcontact center, or a particular telephone number or contact address. Acustomer may make reservations for a business flight from home, and mayprefer that a callback be made during business hours at the customer'splace of business.

In one implementation the contact center offers customers through a webpage a configuration option for callback. FIG. 2 is an example of aninteractive window 201 offered to a customer in an implementation of thepresent invention. The customer in this example is a VIP customer namedLois Marie Jones (a fictitious name). In this example interactive windowshe is offered day preferences by a drop-down window 202 and timepreferences by another drop-down window 203. Unique location preferencesare offered to Lois Jones associated with specific devices, like a smartphone for example, associated with the telephone number of the smartphone, which Lois Jones may enter in interactive window 204. Then, forthat device, Lois may, in one example, configure geographic areas whereshe perhaps never wants a callback, and other areas where callback isacceptable, and others where callback may be intimately associated witha specific expected call.

According to exemplary embodiments, when a callback is scheduled, thecontact center periodically obtains the geographic location of LoisJones' communication device, in this case the smart phone with thenumber 444-999-9989. One way to accomplish this may be through satelliteGlobal Positioning System (GPS), in which location is pinpointed bylongitude and latitude on the Earth's surface to a fraction of a degree.Any other mechanism conventional in the art may be used in addition orin lieu to GPS, to pinpoint a user's location.

Lois Jones and other customers of a contact center may not be expectedto enter latitude and longitude for specific geo-locations that thecustomer may want to associate with callback preferences. Therefore inone implementation of the invention the contact center provides alocation configuration service leveraging Google Maps™, or a systemsimilar to Google Maps™.

In some implementations this service is in cooperation with Google™, andin some implementations may be a proprietary system or a third partysystem providing services to the contact center.

FIG. 3 is an example of an interactive window that may be offered to thecustomer to configure geo-location parameters. The user may enter a cityor region in field 303 and a map 308 may be displayed of that city orregion at some level of magnification. The user may zoom in or out withscroll bar 302. When the region the user wishes to configure as aspecific location for callback is sufficiently legible in map 308, theuser may drag a box 305 to specify the exact region or location. Theuser may identify the new specific region by an ID or code number orcode word in field 304 and save the result by button 306. The user mayspecify and identify any number of such coded regions or locations, anduse these in configuration window 201, or in specific dialogue with anIVR or an agent in different implementations of the present invention.

According to one implementation, the user may provide text descriptionof particular locations that the user wishes to use in configuringcallback options, associate code ID with these descriptions, and thesystem may be enabled to find and specify suitable coordinates from thedescriptions. In some implementations the user may specify by a click,rather than dragging a box, and the system is enabled to specify astandardized region surrounding the point. In some implementations theremay be time parameters involved as well, which is described in moredetail below.

Returning to FIG. 3, in some implementations the user may be enabled toset parameters for call initiation based on movement, rather thanstrictly by location or near location. A user might, for example, wishto initiate a transaction according to movement along a particularstreet or pathway in a particular direction, with reference to one ormore points along the street or pathway.

In one such implementation the user may draw a line 307 following astreet, in this example Mission Street in San Francisco, with the arrowof the line terminating at the intersection with 10th Street, Thedirection parameter in this example is determined by the direction inwhich the user draws the line with the cursor. The beginning of theline, in this case just off Highway 101 may indicate to the system thatthere is a parameter to consider for this user. Continuing movement ofthe user along the path may cause the system to access the particularparameter, and continue to monitor movement of the user toward theendpoint. As the user approaches or reaches the endpoint, theprescheduled transaction may be triggered.

In some implementations paths, including starting points and end points,movement along the path, and also speed of movement (velocity) may beincluded as necessary or conditional parameters for triggering atransaction. For example, such parameters may be leveraged to initiate atransaction when the particular user turns into an entrance to aspecific parking garage, or enters an on-ramp to a freeway. In thefreeway case, this user may wish to utilize driving time on the freewayto catch up on calls, and the same sort of parameter may be used toterminate transactions; that is, the user entering an off-ramp from thesame freeway, may serve to terminate transaction with the user.

Given both static and dynamic parameters, plus time conditions, and thefact that parameters may be used to initiate or terminate transactions,a rich mix of conditions may be specified by users to initiate andterminate transactions. It may be necessary to provide continuous ornearly continuous monitoring of positions for an appliance to satisfysome conditions, but in most cases the more intense monitoring mayitself be triggered and terminated by other parameters.

In one implementation the contact center may build and maintain adatabase of locations described in a variety of ways, associated withspecific geo-coordinates. FIG. 4 is an exemplary diagram illustratingoperation in this implementation. For example, the contact center maycooperate with Hilton hotels to provide coordinates for lobbies of allHilton hotels in France or Italy, or everywhere on the planet.Coordinates may be stored and accessible for hotel rooms in the hotels,pool areas, restaurants and bars. Other enterprises and organizationsmay cooperate as well, including government organizations, churches, andmany, many more. From this, a rich database associating Lat/Longcoordinates with specific locations may be generated.

With a sufficiently rich database the contact center can offer to guidethe customer in setting locations for triggering callback in a broadvariety of ways. For example, the customer may be queried for anaddress, a hotel name and a city, a restaurant name in Chicago, andother locations, and the contact center may provide the coordinates tocooperate with the callback system to trigger events. In the exampleinteractive window shown in FIG. 4 the customer is instructed to enter adescription he or she may be able to provide for a location. The systemparses the entry dynamically for key words, addresses, and the like anduses the parsed information to consult the preprogrammed database, anddynamically update a rich description in window 405 from the database.When the customer is satisfied that the Hootenanny bar she described inwindow 402 is the one returned in window 405, she may enter a code (shewill be informed if the code is already used), and use the save buttonto store that location as one of the locations she wants to use fortriggering a callback.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating operation in one implementation ofthe present invention. The process may be described in terms of asoftware routine executed by the processor in the server 125 based oninstructions stored in the server's memory. The instructions may also bestored in other non-transient computer readable media such as, forexample, a CD-ROM, flash drive, or the like. A person of skill in theart should also recognize that the routine may be executed via hardware,firmware (e.g. via an ASIC), or in any combination of software,firmware, and/or hardware. Furthermore, the sequence of steps of theprocess is not fixed, but can be altered into any desired sequence asrecognized by a person of skill in the art.

In this example a user at step 501 has specified to a contact center atleast one geo-location for triggering a callback, and may have alsospecified time and channel limitations or preferences. This may be donein any one of several ways. For example, a location trigger and othercriteria may be set by a user in response to a query by an agent in avoice dialogue with the user, or in response prompts from an IVR, or theuser may configure one or more time and callback trigger geo-locationsvia a website associated with the contact center handling calls onbehalf of an enterprise. When this step is complete the call center hasa callback scheduled to a particular user, and callback criteria, one ofwhich is a trigger location that may be specified in latitude andlongitude coordinates.

At step 502 the contact center monitors the geo-location of acomputerized communication appliance, such as a smart phone, associatedwith the user, and designated by the user as the trigger device inimplementations of the invention. In some implementations the user'sappliance may be enabled for GPS, and the GPS location may be providedto the contact center by the network enterprise that provides GPSservice to the user. This may be arranged with the user's permissionwith the network service provider. The user's location may also beprovided by a cellular service provider based on cell towertriangulation techniques known in the art.

Typically a callback may be set for a day and time. In someimplementations a callback may be a recurring event. For example, a usermay want a call pertaining to some service every weekday at a particulartime, and at a particular geo-location. In the situation where a day andtime is known by the contact center system for a call, the location ofthe specified user appliance may not be monitored continually. Accordingto this scenario, monitoring may begin, for example, at somepre-programmed time prior to the set time for the call. According to oneembodiment, the arrival of the specified appliance at the geo-locationmay trigger the callback. According to one embodiment, if the timearrives, but the appliance is not seen to be at the trigger location,the call is not made.

In some implementations it may be that the user wants a call at aspecified geo-location regardless of the time or day, or at any time theappliance is seen at that location during daylight hours, or in any of avariety of other circumstances. Monitoring the appliance location maythen be accomplished according to specific requirements, so resourcesare not engaged unnecessarily.

At step 503 the user's appliance, presumably with the user attached,appears in the system's location service, or a notification comes from athird-party service, to be at or near the configured location for acallback. According to one embodiment, this is a trigger in the system'ssoftware to initiate the scheduled callback. At step 504 the contactcenter system initiates the callback. In some implementations theprocess may be a step-by-step process in which the call center systemmay use distance thresholds to trigger certain functions in the overallcallback process.

In an implementation of the invention a communication system isprovided, comprising a contact-center server having a processor, a datarepository coupled to the server, and instructions executable by theprocessor from a non-transitory machine-readable medium, theinstructions providing a communication process by scheduling acommunication from the contact center to a user. According to oneembodiment, a user is enabled to configure a geographic location for acomputerized appliance. Location of the computerized appliance isperiodically tracked by the contact center, and upon the geographiclocation of the computerized appliance being determined by the contactcenter to be the configured geographic location, a communication isinitiated.

The invention is described in enabling detail in several aspects andimplementations above through description of several drawing figures,and specific examples among many other possible implementations of theinvention. The implementations described are meant to be exemplary, andthere are other implementations that may be practiced wherein somedetails differ from the specific details in the described examples.

The communication that is triggered by location, even though it may betermed a callback in various implementations, need not necessarily be avoice call. The communication may be alternatively an email, an instantmessage, initiation of a chat session, or some other form ofcommunication. In some implementations the user to receive such acommunication may specify the channel, appliance, and other detailsconcerning the communication.

According to one implementation, the user is enabled to configure one ormore of date, time, and communication channel in addition to geographiclocation to initiate the scheduled communication. Also in oneimplementation the user is presented an interactive window enabling theuser to indicate a point or region on a map to be used by thecommunication system as the geographic location to be used fortriggering the communication. This may be done by the user constraininga box on the map, the boundaries of the box indicating the boundaries ofthe region. The point or region indicated by the user in the interactivewindow may be converted by the contact center into for example,longitude and latitude coordinates and/or ranges of coordinates, and maybe stored as the geographic location. In some cases the coordinates maybe provided to the contact center by a third-party service.

In some implementations the contact center maintains a database relatinglocations by address and description to coordinates, the user ispresented with a first interactive window for describing a location, andthe contact center parses the user's input for keywords and phrases andpresents candidate locations in a second window. In this case thedatabase may be quite large, and may be developed by the contact centerin cooperation with many enterprises, government organizations, andother sources.

In some implementations of the invention a user is enabled to opt out ona case-by-case basis. For example, since the contact center tracks thegeo-location of the user's appliance, and a call is scheduled, thecontact center may provide an additional service to the user by alertingthe user to the fact that a call is scheduled to be triggered at aparticular location, and this alert may be provided on the basis thatthe appliance has been tracked to be approaching the location, and iswithin a pre-programmed distance (or time) from the location.

In some implementations a user may be enabled to trigger a call from theuser's appliance to the contact center based on the geo-location of theappliance. In one implementation a process may be initiated, based onthe user's appliance approaching a specific geo-location, to place avirtual call from the user in a queue for a particular agent, oravailable agent in a particular group of agents. Upon the appliancereaching the location, the call may be connected from the user'sappliance to the contact center. The user may still be in queue, or theuser's virtual call may have reached the head of the queue, and may beby-passed for an agent until the appliance reaches the geo-location,after which the user is next-in-queue for connection.

In some implementations of the invention geo-location may be in partprovided by WiFi connection of a user's appliance to a WiFi hot spot ofa particular enterprise. In the circumstance described above, wherein auser desires to be notified of status of airline connections uponarrival at a VIP lounge of an airline, if the contact center providinglocation-triggered callback also provides customer service for theparticular airline, connection to the WiFi may serve as the trigger forthe call to the user's appliance. In some implementations the airlinemight provide to the contact center dynamically, ID of appliancesconnecting, and the contact center may filter for IDs for which callbackhas been scheduled.

Although this invention has been described in certain specificembodiments, those skilled in the art will have no difficulty devisingvariations to the described embodiment which in no way depart from thescope and spirit of the present invention. Furthermore, to those skilledin the various arts, the invention itself herein will suggest solutionsto other tasks and adaptations for other applications. It is theApplicant's intention to cover by claims all such uses of the inventionand those changes and modifications which could be made to theembodiments of the invention herein chosen for the purpose of disclosurewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, thepresent embodiments of the invention should be considered in allrespects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the inventionto be indicated by the appended claims and their equivalents rather thanthe foregoing description.

1. An apparatus for location-based communication, comprising: aprocessor; and a memory, the memory storing instructions that whenexecuted by the processor, cause the processor to: schedule acommunication between a contact center and a communication deviceassociated with a user; prompt the user to configure a geographiclocation for the communication device; track geographic location for thecommunication device; and initiate the communication in response todetermining that the geographic location of the communication deviceappliance is the configured geographic location.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: promptthe user to further configure one or more of date, time, orcommunication channel for the scheduled communication.
 3. The apparatusof claim 1 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:prompt the user to indicate, via an interactive window, a point orregion on a map to be used as the geographic location to trigger thecommunication.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the processor to: convert the point or region indicated bythe user in the interactive window into longitude and latitudecoordinates and to store the coordinates as the geographic location totrigger the communication.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein theinstructions further cause the processor to: utilize a third partyservice to determine the coordinates.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: maintain adatabase relating locations by address and description to coordinates;prompt the user to describe a location; parse the location described bythe user for keywords and phrases; and present to the user candidatelocations matching the description.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1 whereinthe instructions further cause the processor to: track location of thecommunication device by Global Positioning System (GPS).
 8. Theapparatus of claim 7 wherein the instructions further cause theprocessor to: cooperate with a third-party service to track location ofthe communication device.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein theinstructions further cause the processor to: cooperate with a cellularservice provider to track location of the communication device.
 10. Theapparatus of claim 1 wherein the instructions further cause theprocessor to: impose a time delay before initiating the communication inresponse to the geographic location of the communication deviceappliance being determined to be the configured geographic location. 11.A method for location-based communication, the method comprising:scheduling by a computing device having a processor, communication froma contact center to a communication device associated with a user;presenting to the user an interactive window by the computing device forprompting the user to configure a geographic location associated withthe communication device; periodically tracking by the computing devicethe geographic location for the communication device; and in response todetermining that the geographic location of the communication device isthe configured geographic location, initiating the communication. 12.The method of claim 11 further comprising: Prompting the user toconfigure one or more of date, time, or communication channel inaddition to geographic location to initiate the scheduled communication.13. The method of claim 11 further comprising: prompting the user toindicate, via an interactive window, a point or region on a map to beused by the communication system as the geographic location to be usedfor triggering the communication.
 14. The method of claim 13 furthercomprising: converting the point or region indicated by the user in theinteractive window into longitude and latitude coordinates and storingthe coordinates as the geographic location.
 15. The method of claim 14further comprising: providing the coordinates to the contact center by athird-party service.
 16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:maintaining a database relating locations by address and description tocoordinates; presenting to user a first interactive window fordescribing a location; parsing the user's description for keywords andphrases; and presenting candidate locations in a second window.
 17. Themethod of claim 11 further comprising: tracking location of thecomputerized appliance by Global Positioning System (GPS).
 18. Themethod of claim 17 further comprising: accomplishing GPS tracking by athird-party system; and providing coordinates from the tracking to thecomputing device.
 19. The method of claim 11 further comprising:tracking the location of the computerized appliance by a wirelessenterprise; and providing coordinates from the tracking to the contactcenter.
 20. The method of claim 11 further comprising: imposing a timedelay prior to the communication being initiated.